Metropolitan Police are believed to have begun issuing more fines to Downing Street staff over gatherings held in government offices during Covid lockdown curbs.

Scotland Yard is starting to hand out fines over a Christmas party held at No 10 on 18 December 2020, according to the Daily Mirror.

Scotland Yard would not confirm if fines had yet been issued over the event – held while London was in strict Tier 3 measures – but it is one of 12 events its Operation Hillman team is investigating.

My colleague Adam Forrest has the details:

A former civil servant received a six-figure pay-out from the government over discrimination after she says was subjected to “insidious” racism during a 20-year battle with the Ministry of Justice.

Olivea Ebanks, 58, worked at the ministry for almost 20 years and took it to court three times; in 2008, 2011 and finally in 2020 for cases respectively won, lost and settled, The Independent’s race correspondent Nadine White reports in this exclusive.

During that time, an internal investigation within the prison service found there was scope for institutional racism yet the ministry has denied such issues plague the department.

Ms Ebanks claims she was called racially insulting names by a manager, prevented from progressing her career and had her out-of-work activities monitored.

Read the details in this report:

G7 leaders on Sunday agreed that the world must intensify economic pressure on Russia’s president Vladimir Putin in any way possible, said prime minister Boris Johnson’s office on Sunday.

“The world must go further and faster to support Ukraine,” Mr Johnson told the G7 leaders.

“Ukraine needed to receive military equipment that allowed them to not just hold ground in Ukraine, but recapture it,” he said, according to his office.

Boris Johnson’s government is threatening to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol unless the EU agrees to ditch border checks soon, despite warnings the row could spark a “horrific” trade war.

The Independent understands that foreign secretary Liz Truss is pushing for unilateral action unless there is a quick and significant change in stance by Brussels to remove checks on goods agreed in the Brexit withdrawal deal.

A Foreign Office source said a compromise appeared unlikely after European Commission negotiator Maros Sefcovic recently made clear in a call to Ms Truss that the EU could not go beyond its existing proposals to ease only some checks.

Ukrainian refugees have been placed with unvetted hosts and in unsuitable homes because the government has yet to give councils any funding for vital safety checks.

Hosting arrangements under the Homes for Ukraine route are already breaking down, as it emerged the required DBS background checks are not always being done before refugees arrive in the UK.

Families who have fled the war have been forced to pay for hotel rooms or register as homeless after discovering their sponsor’s housing is unsuitable, with reports of rodent infestations, broken boilers and hosts with drug addictions.

Read the details in this report by our social affairs correspondent May Bulman.

Boris Johnson promised ‘ to raise standards in our schools so every child has access to the same opportunities wherever they live’ as the minister gear up to crack down on truancy, beef up the powers of education watchdogs and reform the funding system in new legislation.

Under the plans, which will form part of the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday, England’s schools will be required to publish an attendance policy and there will be compulsory registers for children who are not in classrooms so the authorities can identify who is not receiving a full-time education.

The measures will ensure pupils benefit from “every possible hour in the classroom”, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said.

Welcome to The Independent’s liveblog for 5 May 2022 , where we provided the latest updates on UK politics.